James Fallows/Substack:
The Point of Being Blunt
On arcs, inflection points, and the record of presidents who say things plainly. As Biden has now done.
My purpose in looking back at the speech is to mention three point-in-time aspects of Biden’s performance in office that the speech helps illustrate.
—The first is the striking, systematic difference between immediate press and political reaction to what Biden says and does, and later responses. In brief: Biden usually gets panned in the short term for moves that look better later on.
—The second is about a divide in presidential rhetoric that applies to speeches like this one. In brief: presidents who have spoken this bluntly about national crises are usually (not always) later recognized and admired for it.
—The third is about how presidents invoke history in their speeches, and why I personally prefer to hear about “arcs” rather than “inflection points.”
